While classical X-ray imaging measures the absorption of X-rays caused by an object, phase contrast imaging aims at the detection of the phase shift X-rays experience as they pass through an object. According to a design that has been described in literature (T. Weitkamp et al., “X-ray phase imaging with a grating interferometer”, Optics Express 13(16), 2005), a phase grating is placed behind an object to generate an interference pattern of intensity maxima and minima when the object is irradiated with (coherent) X-rays. Any phase shift in the X-ray waves that is introduced by the object causes some characteristic displacement in the interference pattern. Measuring these displacements therefore allows to reconstruct the phase shift of the object one is interested in.
A problem of the described approach is that the feasible pixel size of existing X-ray detectors is (much) larger than the distance between the maxima and minima of the interference pattern. These patterns can therefore not directly be spatially resolved. To deal with this issue, it has been proposed to use an absorption grating immediately in front of the detector pixels, thus looking only at small sub-sections of the interference pattern with the pixels of the detector. Shifting the absorption grating with respect to the pixels allows to recover the structure (i.e. the deviation from the default pattern without an object) of the interference pattern. The necessary movement of optical elements is however a nontrivial mechanical task, particularly if it has to be done fast and with high accuracy, as would be required if phase contrast imaging shall be applied in a medical environment.